Little Things 307: About Writing

 

Last weekend, I thought I just wanted to stop writing. But then yesterday morning I woke up entertained by reading Craig's newsletter - the latest incident in Karuizawa. Here I am back again, inspired by how his writing feels so nonchalant yet personal at the same time. Just writing about life as it unfolds, because we never really know when our last stop will be.

I don’t think I’m done learning and sharing just yet.

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Last week, I also did some self-work, this time on “life purpose” through the lens of Islamic psychology. I wanted to see where my inclinations point, my strengths, my talents, and how all of that might align with purpose. Out of curiosity, I experimented with ChatGPT as a guide. I answered a series of layered prompts, and it came back with a Venn diagram + explanations to help me reflect.

Note: There isn’t such a thing as an “official archetype test” in Islamic psychology. What I did was simply compile ideas and concepts from Islamic teachings as a guide for self-work. That’s all. So please don’t come at me with “ini sesat”, if you’re familiar with self-work, you’ll know it’s about intentional effort to understand yourself better. The process is always the same: introspection, identifying, and then taking concrete steps.

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Here’s the gist:

We broke it into 3 layers : what Allah built in, what life shaped, and what keeps trying to show up. Imagine it as a Venn diagram:

• Circle 1: Fitrah (born-with traits)

• Circle 2: Skills and wisdom forged by life events (Ilm + experience)

• Circle 3: The recurring callings/signs (Ilham)

At the center: your unique divine gift zone.

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After reflecting and answering the prompts, ChatGPT summarized my overlap as:

A quiet strategist–writer who processes deeply, distills wisdom, and expresses it in ways that bring calm clarity to others — not just for now, but to last. Basically, the scribe-philosopher archetype. That archetype is like the ancient version of someone who’s both a thinker and a recorder of thought — someone who processes deeply, then puts it into words that endure.

I was surprised by the answer. I know I love to write, and I use this blog to record my reflections and learnings. But I never realized that answering these prompts would point me to an “archetype” that describes me so precisely. It feels good to see that my gift zone connects to something I’ve been doing all along.

For a long time, I’ve felt like the 18 years I’ve spent here, documenting my thoughts through different phases of life, might be futile. Yet every time I return and cringe at those old posts, I also find myself learning something; about me, about others, about the world. In hindsight, this space has never been wasted. It has been shaping me all along, quietly building the person I am becoming. 

But then, why blog and not personal journal or a diary, right? 

It is different, every post is a deliberate choice to share something from me to the public's eyes. It is always humbling to learn that most of the time, I know nothing and I am in the process of figuring things out myself - and I want to normalize that. Most people like to show only the end product, the success story, the ultimate end goal. But I love the process. I love the journey. I love the "figuring things out" part. 

So, I guess, I will still be here, writing whatever I felt worth note-taking for perhaps many more years to come.